I've been trying to play some serious catch-up recently in my genealogy research, so one of my tasks has been to finally incorporate details from a specific page of the 1860 US federal census into my online family tree for my 2nd great grandfather, Christian, and his Eggenberger branch. While information on censuses is usually fairly straightforward and easy to extrapolate, this particular one has given me some extra grief, and I'll explain why.
The census page I'm interested in is for sheet number 57 of Chippewa Township, Wayne County, Ohio, USA. Take a look at how it's displayed across the two most accessible genealogy sites:
Ancestry.com
FamilySearch.org
On MyHeritage.com, you can't even find the record via search, as they do not allow page-by-page browsing and they were unable to index any of the residents on this page due to the poor digitized microfilm image.
Oddly, I had an inkling that the original microfilmed image by NARA must have been of better quality, due to the fact that both Ancestry and FamilySearch had semi-decent transcriptions of the occupants listed on the page. There appeared to be no way they could have originally transcribed some of those names had they not been more easily readable originally.
I flagged my concerns to both Ancestry and FamilySearch, but all of my requests fell on deaf ears (or at least, into black holes of website complaints).
So two years ago, in 2024, I solicited the help of Brian Rhinehart, of Civil War Records, to head back to the National Archives in person and seek out the original census record. He was admittedly skeptical that he could retrieve anything more suitable for me if both major websites displayed such poor image quality.
And yet, he found success! The microfilm is perfectly legible! It's only the digitized versions on the internet that are overexposed. It's a bummer I had to shell out additional money to get what should be readily available to me with my costly Ancestry subscription, but sometimes, you're dealt a bad hand.
So here's what the image should look like:
So much better!! I can actually now read all of the names! And two years later, I'm finally getting around to logging this page and studying the Eggenberger/Eckenberger household and their neighbors more intently.
Most importantly is the Hurst couple just next door, because this was none other than Christian's sister Elizabeth and her much older husband, Martin Hurst/Horst. The couple went on to have two boys together, Emanuel and Henry. After Martin passed away, Christian would later be deemed their guardian. And Elizabeth would eventually go on to remarry a man named Joseph S. Stuff (who had been married twice before). She had one son with Joseph, and they named him Noah Centenial Stuff.
When I originally learned of Noah, I did quickly think that was an odd choice of a middle name, but I also didn't think much of it, to be honest, until this very moment, as I've been placing more scrutinous eyes not only on this 1860 document but other records involving Christian's family and friends.
If I had done all of this research back in 2024 when Brian originally retrieved this refreshed copy for me, I'm sure I wouldn't have noticed. But considering it's 2026 and we JUST wrapped up celebrating the Bicentennial of the United States - its 250th birthday - now it has struck me! Noah was born in 1876 - the country's 100th birthday, or rather, its Centennial celebration! Of course!
It gives me so much joy to know that my Swiss immigrant ancestors clearly had thought their move to the U.S. was a good one. That's usually an answer you struggle to learn in family history research -- whether they regretted their decision to make the long, arduous journey across the Atlantic or whether they were grateful for their newfound home. Sometimes the "land of milk & honey" was nothing of the sort. But I can pretty much guarantee that Elizabeth would have never named her son Noah Centenial if she wasn't the least bit thankful or proud to be in America by 1876. And so, I will transfer that same feeling of accomplishment to her brother Christian, my direct immigrant ancestor (and Noah's uncle).
By studying the neighbors on this 1860 US census page, I've learned a key personality trait of the Eggenbergers in a roundabout way!
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